Intercultural Marketing

In an increasingly global world where barriers to trade and to international exchanges constantly diminish, cultural differences remain the single most enduring feature that has to be taken into consideration.

Understanding what is country-specific and what is universal is essential for the design of marketing strategies that can be successfully implemented across national markets.

The culturally competent marketing people combine the search for global competitiveness with the necessary adjustment for local success. The dilemma they have to solve is: “Standardize as much as possible, customize as much as needed”.

The training objective is:

– To increase the awareness of the impact of culture on international marketing.
– To provide a sound knowledge of the most significant cultural dimensions and their impact on the 4 P’s of the marketing mix. For example:

Product

Cultural differences in consumer behaviour

Culture-bound and culture-free products

Standardization or customization of product attributes

Symbolic attributes: colours, shapes, numbers..

The concept of service

The national imagess

Market research

Price

Bargaining

The price – quality relationship

Promotion

Sales promotion customs and laws

Aattitudes and preferences towards advertising

Communication styles

Place

Channels of distribution

Sales force management

Bribery

Buyer – seller relationship

The national negotiation styles

The course combines the trainer´s background in marketing management (consumer goods and distribution in three countries) and his passion for cultural differences.